10000 Cache Milestone Tag

My mission is to visit Milestone Worthy caches... although every cache can be a milestone. It's all about the experiences and the friends that you share them with.

I found my 10,000th cache on March 29th 2022. The day before Memorial Day.

I hiked up near Blodgetts Peak to find GCA942 "Forget Me Not - WWII Crash Site"

History: The aircraft was a C-49J twin-engined transport, en route from Pueblo to Denver on 23rd Feb. 1943 in overcast weather. It crashed at 1205 MT, instantly killing the pilot and crewmen.

My Log:  

I moved to Colorado 3 months ago and about 100 finds away from 10,000.
Before I moved, I was planning on finding a very special cache in Minnesota, which would also have completed every county in Minnesota. But as soon as I knew I was coming to Colorado, I needed to find a new cache that could commemorate this special milestone. I chose this cache back in February. It's been very tricky to make this cache coincide with 10000 and the weather also cooperating to come up to this one safely. (And a slew of other numbers/challenge based reasons)
This one certainly made me work for the milestone. And also made it very memorable.
I think I came at this wrong. I parked on a residential street and went through some military property and around a reservoir of some sort. And then up 173. Parts of 173 were scary. And then once to the "tank" straight up the scree. That is also very scary. And coming back down might be even worse.
The crash site is a very somber location. Especially on Memorial Day weekend.
As soon as I got to GZ I found the cache. I dropped off a couple of travel bugs and a pathtag.
Then I went down the hillside at a snails pace on my rear end to pay tribute to those that lost their lives here 80 years ago.
My body hurts all over after this hike, even now after relaxing for 3 hours after finding the cache.
My adventure took just under 7 hours. Apparently 2 of those hours was me resting or not moving. (Possibly searching for a cache or having a snack) My route took me 7.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1450’
When I got back down off of 173 and back around the reservoir, it started raining and the wind picked up. It was blowing so hard the pinecones were blowing uphill. I brought my rain jacket so no worries there. But that last few miles seemed to take forever.
But I will always remember this cache and would give it more than one favorite if I could.

Thank you Team jasks for placing and maintaining this cache for me to find and log. May 29, 2022 4:47 PM